(Photo: Patricia Vicente/WCSN)
The Arizona State men’s tennis team (7-3) returned home for the first time since Feb. 1 to take on the undefeated University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebels (10-0) on Friday at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe.
The Sun Devils looked to rebound at home after their 0-5 loss to No. 13 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, last Sunday. The match was also the Rebels’ first road trip of the season, as they have hosted all their previous matches in Las Vegas.
The Sun Devils made the surprising decision to switch up two of their doubles teams, pairing Tom LeBlanc with Tim Ruehl and Andrea Bolla with William Kirkman, while freshman duo Christan Lerby and George Stoupe remained paired.
Before Friday, Ruehl and Bolla had played together as the No. 12 ranked doubles team in the country, even managing to upset the No. 1 ranked duo from Ohio State earlier this month.
LeBlanc and Ruehl had minimal difficulty defeating UNLV’s Jackson Atherton and Milos Dabic on Court 3 in the double round, winning comfortably 6-1 as the two other matches remained competitive at 3-3. Lerby and Stoupe were locked into a back-and-forth battle with Eric Samuelsson and Clayton Alenik on Court 2, but eventually fell behind 4-5, failing to register a point in the final round as UNLV evened the score 1-1.
On Court 1, Bolla and Kirkman appeared to be evenly matched against Eric Samuelsson and Alex Kobelt and Jordan Sauer. However, the UNLV duo pulled away from the Sun Devil tandem over the last two rounds, clinching the doubles point for the Rebels.
Entering the singles round at a 0-1 deficit, Lerby quickly evened the score with a 6-2, 6-2 win on Court 2 against Sauer. Stoupe would follow his doubles partner with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Alenik on Court 6, putting the Sun Devils in the lead.
UNLV’s Anton Ornberg would later thwart Kirkman on Court 3 despite the senior’s efforts to battle back in the second set. Tied at two points apiece, LeBlanc put the Sun Devils ahead with a victory over Tom Ciszewski on Court 4. However, banged-up senior Makey Rakotomatala was unable to top Samuelsson in the third set on Court 2.
It all came down to Andrea Bolla’s performance on Court 1. Bolla appeared frustrated with the officiating throughout the beginning of the first frame, dropping 7-6 to Kobelt. However, Bolla collected himself to win the second set 6-4 and force the match-deciding final set.
Bolla and Kobelt then dueled to 6-6 tiebreaker, but the Italian right-hander would come up clutch to secure the 4-3 win for the Sun Devils and hand UNLV their first loss of the season.
The Sun Devils will remain at home next weekend as they take on No. 21 Baylor.
